Seminary graduation

On Sunday I spoke at my seminary graduation. Grandpa couldn't hear it, so he asked for a copy. This is an approximation of my talk, but not the exact one, sinceI don't like reading talks. It seems too stuffy to me. I write it down but just memorize my ideas and speak.

I have loved having seminary and being able to leave the worldly school and go learn about the Gospel and feel the Spirit.

The summer before ninth grade was when I really first got my testimony. I was making it a habit to read my scriptures. One day after reading them I prayed. I don’t remember what I was praying about; I think I was asking for something, and I felt the Spirit very strongly and got my answer. I soon found myself with “I Believe in Christ” going through my head. I hadn’t heard it for several weeks, but there it was–and it expressed my feelings exactly. I had a lot of spiritual experiences throughout ninth grade. There were some strange occurrences when I thought some non-spiritual things were spiritual. When I read my scriptures I read some of the comments I wrote in ninth grade and I think, “What? That doesn’t make any sense.” But I was trying and I was strengthening my testimony. There was one time that year when I had some problems and so I prayed. Over the course of a few days, I had some dreams that seemed to answer my prayer. I usually have nonsensical dreams, but I knew these dreams answered my prayers. Then after a few days I prayed sincerely and repented and I knew I was forgiven and God loved me. At the end of the year, it was the time when everything was due in all my classes and I had a ton of homework. It was due the next day and there was no way I’d be able to finish it. But I thought of the scripture mastery Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” So I prayed that God would help me, and I was able to finish all of my homework when it was an enormous load.

By my sophomore year I had established my testimony and I didn’t think of non-spiritual things as spiritual anymore. That was my favorite year in seminary because we were studying the New Testament. This is my favorite of all the standard works. I think sometimes in the Church we don’t focus enough on the New Testament. It is my favorite because you get the account of Christ and his love and miracles and Atonement. I love the Gospels. You can have ten miracles in one chapter, and I love that.

This year we’ve been studying the Doctrine and Covenants and what I think is one of the most inspiring stories of the Gospel, the tragic martyrdom of Joseph Smith. It just seems to prove the divinity of the work, because I don’t see how disagreeing with someone justifies killing. John Taylor, of course, has said Joseph Smith has done more for the salvation of man than anyone except for Jesus, and his martyrdom shows the parallelism between him and Christ. With both of them you have benevolent men establishing their religion, only doing good, and you have the religious right killing them and hating them, but they were only good.

I know that Christ died for us and loves us and that Joseph Smith established his Gospel. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.